"Tianjin" preserved vegetable

I love these vegetables with steamed fish :


I've never cooked with them myself though. Does anyone have some favourite recipies?

/\dam

I eat these in noodle soup...I just add a tablespoon

don't we have another name for this in Cantonese? dong choy 東菜, or something like that?

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- Andy, the ABC (美國土子)
[www.CantoneseLanguage.org]

also called 雪菜
always put in the 雲吞麵

Andy,

The label says: 冬菜
Which does sound similar to your suggestion.

No, Xuecai 雪菜 is something altogether different. I think this is preserved turnip greens from the top of a turnip. It has a darker colour than Tianjin preserved vegetable, and TJPV is like a light caramel colour.

/\dam, we use it on fish. You have to wash it first, as with any preserved veg because there's likely to be sand or grit in it, probably because the veg isn't cleaned properly first, or that the salt is unrefined or that when they make the preserve, they need to dry or wilt it first either laid out on a drying platform or on the ground.

My dad, when he was still around, would buy lemon sole. You clean the fish after cleaning out its gills and entrails, keep it on the bone and using your cleaver, scrap the scales from the skin from the tail end up the body towards the head. Wash off the scales and then give it another scraping to get rid of the excess slime which the fish naturally produces when its very fresh.

Slice crosswise across the flesh a few time so you have a few slits, sprinkle salt across the top of the fish and dot the fish with tianjin preserved vegetable. Sprinkle some light soya sauce over it, and then drizzle some cooking oil over the fish. Steam for 10-15 minutes and that's it. It's cooked when the fish meat comes off the bone.

Dyl.

Dylan Sung

Gordon

also called 雪菜
always put in the 雲吞麵

No, Xuecai 雪菜 is something altogether different. I think this is preserved turnip greens from the top of a turnip. It has a darker colour than Tianjin preserved vegetable, and TJPV is like a light caramel colour.

Dyl.

From my understanding, 雪菜 (P:xue cai) is made from mustard greens 芥菜 (p:jia cai), in Cantonese we also call it, 雪利紅 (P:xue li hong). it is typically fresh salted mustard greens. It is typically bright green green because it is perishable. Although you can buy it canned, which is a dark green (presumably from the borting process). Shoot.. I think I'm just gonna run to the market for lunch if I brought my camera to work.. and take some pictures of all the choy's mentioned in this thread. Need to buy some 冬菜 anyways。

you know what, I realized I am an idiot. that Tianjin vegatable.. the character is 冬菜 which is the same sound as 東。 I am an idiot... CFT pointed it out. I thought that was the character was pronounced like "jun".. but it's the same sound as 東.

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- Andy, the ABC (美國土子)
[www.CantoneseLanguage.org]

雪利紅: i think the actual word is 雪里紅(but seems now people write either one...) it's also the deep fried crispy green leaves you see in 干炸三鬆 (along with deep fried dried scallops and deep fried winter bamboo shoots).

雪菜 is widely used in hong kong and 江南(江浙兩省) family-style dishes. in hagzhou, 片兒川 and 面疙瘩 are 2 pasta dishes that are very famous .

冬菜[zh.wikipedia.org]

as dylan said, 冬菜 is a brownish color and i would say it more resembles diced 菜圃 than 雪菜.

雪菜 is 雪裏紅 (雪中紅 in 閩南語), also known as 雪裡蕻(/hung6/), from which 雪裡紅 probably originated.

From 《康熙字典》：
【蕻】［集韻］茂也。
　　　　又菜名。四明有菜，名雪裏蕻。雪深，諸菜凍死，此菜獨青。

I went to the market last week.... and bought a couple 雪菜 examples...



The vegetable on the right is was labeled, 雪裡紅 (P:xue li hong) at the market. I also bought a packet and a can of 雪菜 (P:xue cai). I apparently went to a the wrong market.. but some markets will have fresh 雪菜 that is salted, oiled, and ready for you to throw into the wok... but this market didn't (Hong Kong market in West Covina).

what I did not find at the market was 冬菜... well they did.. the same as Sheik's Tianjin jar... but I was looking for this other Taiwanese brand I usually buy.. but they didn't have any.

so made some noodles and put 雪裡紅 and 雪菜 on top.



also note that the 雪菜 packet says, Shalom. Perhaps it's kosher!

oh wait.. the post topic is 冬菜！

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- Andy, the ABC (美國土子)
[www.CantoneseLanguage.org]